Five Routes Are Supa-Frequent Now!

Beginning, June 7th, riders on five Local Routes, 7 Duval/Dove Springs, 20 Manor/Riverside, 300 Govalle, 325 Ohlen and 331 Oltorf, will experience more frequent service each Monday through Saturday. The new High-Frequency Routes will help to create more reliable bus service and reduce wait times at stops.

Why were the routes chosen? Why is developing a High-Frequency Network important?

Simply put, Capital Metro has invested in these five routes based on their ridership, productivity and coverage. The agency weighed a variety of well-researched information to form the new High-Frequency Network, including:

Enhancing service to the densest population and employment areas exhibiting the most transit use;

Focusing frequency enhancements on the top 10 Local routes in Capital Metro’s bus system because these routes carry 50% of daily ridership;

Allowing access to majority of the population within Capital Metro’s service area by creating more connections between Local routes and MetroRapid, which bisects the center of Austin;

Complementing the existing system and encouraging more leisure-based, non-commuter use through increased frequency of a “core” route network;

Responding to ServicePlan 2020 recommendations for a “growth” scenario;

Developing programs to address population growth in the city and region;

Phasing the program to account for managed growth of the transit system, with consideration given to resources like facilities and equipment; and

Reaching out to our future riders: Millennials; nearly 70 percent of Millennials use multiple travel options more than several times a week and many of them don’t own a car (APTA Transit News, 2013).

Does frequency matter?

Research shows that when wait times are 15 minutes or less, riders report not needing schedules and feel more confident about getting to their destinations in a timely manner. Wait times longer than 15 minutes, however, require more planning and result in increased rider anxiety. Studies show that riders perceive the time that they spend waiting for the bus is longer than it actually is—nearly twice as long—and longer than any other part of their trip, including the time it takes to walk or bike to the bus stops, or even ride the bus to their destinations!

In an effort to reduce riders’ anxiety—and exposure to the hot Texas sun—Capital Metro has pared down the wait. On weekdays, Routes 7, 300, 325 and 331 will run every 15 minutes from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., and every 20 minutes from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. Route 20 will run every 20 minutes during the same time period. On Saturdays, Routes 7, 300, 325 and 331 will run every 20 minutes on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

This way, our riders can get out and spend more time doing things they enjoy.

Here are some of the places riders can go on Capital Metro’s High-Frequency Routes:

For more information on Capital Metro’s High-Frequency Routes, visit capmetro.org or see our new, easier-to-read system map.

Think another route should be more frequent?

Capital Metro reviews its services three times a year, analyzing performance and proposing potential adjustments to make improvements. As part of this process, we consider the public feedback we’ve collected prior to each change. Going forward, we will explore increasing frequency on additional routes, according to criteria like a route’s ridership, productivity and coverage.

1. We saw the opportunity to improve Route 20 frequency as a supporting route as it matched our criteria for ridership, productivity, and coverage. We’re limited with resources and funding at this time. But, that route is in our Service Plan for long-term improvements. We will re-evaluate this Fall in our next Service Plan. Overall, we envision an expanded High-Frequency Route system, additional phases we’d like to achieve, but those also would require additional resources including more vehicles.
2. We appreciate your feedback on Route 350. As previously mentioned, this list of High-Frequency Routes we have now is not the end all be all list. We continue looking at ways to improve routes. Look out for our upcoming Service Plan review processing beginning in Fall, we will definitely be looking for public input to help shape the plan.

One reason is that it would require new/extra buses, which they don’t currently have.

“With those issues resolved, Hemingson said it was feasible to use Capital Metro’s surplus buses during the daytime hours to increase service on the five routes.”
“The reason for not boosting frequency on Route 1 now, Hemingson said, came down to the investment Capital Metro already made on MetroRapid in the same corridor and not needing to purchase new buses for the five routes it chose to add to the FSN Phase 1.”

Why wasn’t the 1 included instead of one of the routes that was included? The buses could have been used to restore the original frequency to the 1 (or 3) instead of adding frequency to the routes with lower ridership.

We chose to invest in Routes 7, 20, 300, 325, & 331 based on those routes’ ridership, productivity, and coverage. We recently invested in Route 1 & 3 corridors through the MetroRapid implementation. While we may invest in the 1 & the 3 in the future, our goal with the June Service Changes is to build off MetroRapid and create a system of frequent routes that could serve more of the community.
As Mr. Hemingson stated in the article, the routes we added frequency to were also based on those with the potential room for improvement during midday hours, using our existing bus fleet. Expanding frequency on other routes during peak hours would require us to purchase more buses. We are looking into that possibility for the future, but it is not something feasible now. Our vision is to add more routes to this High-Frequency Route system in future phases.